Modulr expands US reach through Cogent Bank partnership

Modulr, the London-headquartered payments platform, has struck a partnership with Cogent Bank, a US state-chartered community bank, to widen its reach into the US market. The deal, announced on 23 September 2026 from London and Orlando, Florida, is meant to let existing and new Modulr customers open US accounts and reach several American payment networks through one integrated platform.

The move matters to UK businesses that trade with, or are expanding into, the United States. Modulr is authorised in the UK as an electronic money institution and says it processes more than 200 million transactions and more than £180bn in annualised payment value for more than 6,000 businesses — company-reported figures rather than independently audited ones. It is also one of five firms in the first cohort of the Financial Conduct Authority's (FCA) Scale-up Unit for firms it regulates alone, a status the regulator is explicit does not amount to an endorsement.

This is not Modulr's first step into the US. It entered the American market in January 2026 as a technology supplier to FIS, providing technology for FIS's Money Movement Hub. The Cogent Bank agreement adds a different layer: a banking partner through which Modulr says customers will be able to open or access US accounts and move money, rather than Modulr simply supplying software to someone else's bank-led product.

From technology supplier to bank-led distribution

Under the FIS arrangement, Modulr's role was to provide the technology inside a hub run by FIS. The Cogent Bank deal is described differently. Cogent Bank describes its embedded-finance approach as a "bank-led" model, with defined bank and delegated responsibilities covering partner due diligence, compliance controls and how money flows through the system, while Modulr supplies the payments automation layer that customers interact with.

That distinction matters for a UK reader assessing what has actually changed. Modulr has not become a US bank. There is no evidence in the material Modulr and Cogent have published that Modulr holds a US banking licence or a money-transmission licence; Cogent is presented as the regulated banking partner, and Modulr as the technology and automation platform sitting on top of it. Cogent's core infrastructure connects to FIS's Money Movement Hub, according to Modulr, linking the new arrangement back to the earlier FIS relationship rather than replacing it.

What the platform is meant to offer

Modulr says the combined offering will let customers open US accounts and make standard and same-day pay-outs, with payments automatically routed for cost and speed across three US payment rails, accessible through one interface:

None of these are UK payment systems, and none of the rules governing them are UK rules. They sit entirely within the US payments infrastructure that Cogent Bank, as a US-chartered institution, connects to.

Several details of how this will work in practice have not been published. Modulr and Cogent have not said which legal entity will hold customer funds, whether deposits reached through the platform qualify for cover under the US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation scheme, or in what ownership structure any pass-through insurance would apply. The exact ACH product behind "same-day" pay-outs, who selects between rails when routing is "automatically optimised", and whether customers can override that choice have also not been disclosed. Modulr's chief executive, Myles Stephenson, is quoted saying the Cogent relationship gives the company "nationwide reach" from the outset, but neither company has defined what that covers or confirmed that every product and rail will be available in every US state.

Who it is for, and what happens first

Modulr says the service is aimed at two groups: existing UK and international customers expanding into the US, and US-native, high-volume platforms in sectors including lending, earned wage access and payroll. Initial pilots are planned with several unnamed customers in earned wage access, lending and merchant services, ahead of what Modulr describes as a further expansion into earned wage access and payroll — wording that repeats earned wage access in both the pilot and expansion stages, leaving the intended sequencing unclear. No date for general availability has been disclosed.

Modulr's scale, and its place in the FCA's Scale-up Unit

Modulr's reported operating metrics — more than 200 million transactions, more than £180bn in annualised payment value, and more than 6,000 businesses served — are figures the company has repeated in its own announcements, including this one and its earlier Scale-up Unit selection notice. They have not been identified in the available material as audited figures, and the measurement period, annualisation method and group perimeter behind them have not been published.

Separately, the FCA announced on 10 August 2026 that Modulr was one of five firms — alongside ClearScore, Teya, Urban Jungle and Zilch — selected for the first cohort of its Scale-up Unit for firms the FCA regulates solely (as distinct from the dual FCA-PRA track for banks and building societies). The eligibility bar for that pilot, which opened for applications on 20 May 2026 and closed on 22 June 2026, required at least three years of FCA-regulated operation, average income growth above 20% a year over three years with that rate expected to continue, and gross annual revenue above £100m and/or an investor valuation above £250m — though meeting those thresholds did not guarantee a place.

The FCA has been explicit about what the unit does and does not do: it says the Scale-up Unit provides tailored regulatory support to growing firms, but does not lower regulatory standards, does not guarantee favourable regulatory decisions, and does not endorse a participant or its products. Any reading of Modulr's Scale-up Unit membership as an FCA seal of approval on the Cogent Bank partnership, or on the company more broadly, would misstate what the scheme is.

What is still unclear

Modulr's own announcement contains an unresolved internal discrepancy: the body text says Cogent Bank's assets have grown from $85m at its 2018 founding to more than $2.5bn, while the boilerplate description on the same page puts Cogent's total assets at more than $1bn. The available sources do not include a dated US regulatory filing that would settle which figure is current.

Other open questions bear directly on any UK business considering using the service once it becomes available: the account provider and FDIC treatment of funds, the state-by-state availability of products and rails, pricing and eligibility, transaction limits, and the commercial terms — including exclusivity and revenue-sharing — between Modulr, Cogent Bank and FIS. None of these have been disclosed. Businesses that hold or move money through any payments platform take on operational risks such as payment delays, rejected onboarding, fraud controls, account restrictions and rail outages; readers evaluating this or comparable US-facing payment services should look to Modulr's and Cogent Bank's own published terms, and to the FCA's Scale-up Unit pages, rather than to secondary summaries, before making decisions.

What to watch next

The next material milestones will be a stated general-availability date, published account terms clarifying deposit protection, and confirmation of which of the three payment rails are live for customers rather than announced in principle. The FCA's Scale-up Unit page and the FCA's 10 August 2026 press release set out what that programme does and does not confer. The FCA Register is the official place to check the current regulatory status and permissions of the specific Modulr entity involved.